Look, Mandalorian armor is cool. I get it. I have a Boba Fett helmet in the trunk of my car. The design is incredibly cool. Still, not taking it off … even when you’re with your children or partner? It’s intense.
Din was a foundling adopted by The Children of the Watch (formerly known as the Death Watch), which has been described as both a sect and a cult (by Bo-Katan) that stayed separate from the rest of the society. Once you are given your armor in this group, you never remove your helmet. You can eat, drink, and bathe — alone — but it stays on the rest of the time. That’s not an easy ask. I mean, as he tells another character, no one will hurt him for removing it, but once he has, he can’t put it back on.
Whichever side you subscribe to, it’s hardly something we haven’t seen before in the religions of our own world. Some require a head covering at different times, a certain style of dress, the wearing of a symbol, etc. This one is rather extreme, though, surprising viewers who wanted to see Pedro Pascal’s face. Pascal has even said he can’t see very well in it.
Narratively it works very well. It’s a strong code that our hero adheres to, which is something we often see in other forms in the Western genre, which “The Mandalorian” often emulates. It just goes against what we’ve seen of this group of people before.